Why Microlearning in Aviation Delivers Better Training Results
Why Microlearning in Aviation Delivers Better Training Results
May 20, 2022

‘Microlearning in aviation’ is becoming a widely used term in crew training and here is what you need to know.

The dynamic world of aviation is exciting, but pilots, cabin crew, instructors, and other staff know that ongoing training is almost a daily practice in aviation. Many aviation professionals struggle to process a large amount of information and maintain high memory retention.

Many airlines and flight training centres still keep applying outdated teaching methods. Lengthy PDFs and long manuals riddled with theory are still at the centre of airlines’ crew training.

But today, there is a simple and more engaging way of crew training. Understanding what microlearning is and how to use it can help you apply the ‘simplify to maximize’ principle and deliver better training results.

What is microlearning? 🤔

Microlearning is a holistic approach to skill-based learning which focuses on relatively small learning units. It helps you break a vast amount of information into small, short, and ‘digestible’ learning units.

It enables the fast and targeted delivery of learning right when a learner needs it. This allows your crew to complete a few sections of the course between meetings, during the commute, or at home.

Brevity plays the most important role in microlearning. Concise, exact, and straight-to-the-point courses are what crew members expect. Rather than sitting in the classroom and completing lengthy courses, they lean towards bite-sized pieces of content and on-demand learning. Also, they prefer independent and self-directed learning experiences.

Besides being short, microlearning content can take many different forms.

Here are some examples:

👉 Text – short paragraphs
👉 Images – engaging illustrations and visual aids
👉 Video – 1-minute explainers
👉 Audio – snippets of speech
👉 Interactive – quizzes that test learners’ knowledge

If you aim to provide your crew with a better and more efficient training experience, you may want to explore how to make microlearning a part of your training program.

Microlearning in aviation

The main purpose of microlearning is to keep learners engaged with the content.

Airlines are drifting away from conventional to innovative, effective and practical training methods to keep pace with the tides of change. Increasingly, more airlines use microlearning.

Not only that this type of learning suits the fast digital age, but it integrates on-demand learning, which is convenient for learners today.

Where can you apply microlearning in aviation?

👉 crew onboarding
👉 recurrent training
👉 procedure training

Adults don’t learn the same way as children

Improve your crew training by understanding adult learning principles first.

As Uniting Aviation points out, microlearning in aviation is used at different levels of crew training. From pre-training engagement, microlearning can be used in initial and recurrent training programs as a part of refresher courses or any beginner courses.

Benefits of microlearning

There are several reasons why microlearning can elevate your crew training. You can find a few bonus tips that can help you apply microlearning straight away.

Microlearning - fast delivery and consumption

Fast delivery and consumption

Microlearning delivers short-form content. Short-form content is much easier to digest and can help crew members consume complex topics in a shorter time.

Tip: Get straight to the point with your content without waiting (wasting!) a minute. Deliver courses in such a way that are simple and concise, but at the same time, they convey the message you want to deliver. Focus on a specific topic and don’t give your learners an excuse to tune out.

Microlearning - fast delivery and consumption

High flexibility

Microlearning content should be accessible on mobile devices, so your crew can access it anytime and anywhere they want. If complex topics are divided into smaller segments, your crew can choose which topics they want to learn first.

Tip: Provide your crew members with microlearning that is device-agnostic. That means that your crew can access learning content on their phone, tablet, or laptop and go through a few short lessons, whether at home, on public transport or in the training centre.

Microlearning - fast delivery and consumption

Engagement and higher memory retention

Short-form content helps the crew to get engaged, repeat the course sections and retain the information. Forgetting happens, but microlearning content is easy to navigate through and can help to revisit necessary topics.

Tip: Occupy the entire brain of the learner through a combination of a short video, text, and audio content. Use the power of storytelling and include real-life cases to help your crew connect theory with real work situations. Aim for short videos. Videos under 1 minute get more engagement.

Snack learning?

Information is most meaningfully processed by the learner when it is presented in digestible pieces.

Ready to implement microlearning?

Understanding microlearning is crucial in elevating your crew training. By implementing this ‘chunked out’ way of learning in your crew program, you can make crew training more engaging and effective.

As Jay Power says: ‘let’s not continue to teach the same ways as always just because it works; let’s use our imagination to create learner-centric training systems that deliver better quality in less time.’

Cyber-Security-in-Aviation-Course

E-courses for flight and cabin crew

E-learning courses and training aids for flight and cabin crew. Easy to implement in your current training setup.

Sources:

Andriotis, N. (2018). What Is Microlearning: a Complete Guide for Beginners. [online] ELearning Industry. Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/what-is-microlearning-benefits-best-practices.

Fluent, P. (2019). 3 Reasons Why Microlearning Should Be an Essential Part of Your Learning Strategy | Learning solutions | Talent Management System. [online] www.peoplefluent.com. Available at: https://www.peoplefluent.com/blog/learning/3-reasons-why-microlearning-should-be-part-of-your-learning-strategy/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2022].

Itani, N. (2019). The changing face of aviation training. [online] Uniting Aviation. Available at: https://unitingaviation.com/news/capacity-efficiency/the-changing-face-of-aviation/.

Collantes, C. (2022). Microlearning. [online] Aeroclass.org. Available at: https://www.aeroclass.org/microlearning/ [Accessed 15 Mar. 2022].

Sheldon, H. (2017). 5 Tips And Tricks For Building Microlearning That Engages Learners. [online] eLearning Industry. Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/building-microlearning-that-engages-learners-5-tips-tricks [Accessed 15 Mar. 2022].